Recent social scientific research on childhood is oddly ambivalent. Despite much theoretically creative and empirically innovative work, the sociology of childhood, as a subfield, is often uncomfortable with its own object of inquiry. I identify three possible sources of this sociological ambivalence. First, much work does not fully differentiate children from childhood. Second, much of the literature conflates the notion of childhood as a social construct with childhood as a social good. And third, the construction of childhood in some of (...) the literature is incommensurate with the social policies designed to protect or empower children. This review further illuminates this threefold equivocation with a schematic review of the sociological literature on childhood written since the 1980s. I conclude by briefly suggesting how recent insights from historical and poststructural approaches have begun to alleviate this ambivalence. (shrink)

Philippe Ariès's book, Centuries of Childhood, has been hailed for over a decade as a leading work on family history. Ari6s compared traditional and modern families and argued that mignotage and the teaching of reason during childhood developed only during the modern period. Despite its popularity, the book is severely flawed. First, Ariès uses printed and pictorial art forms as evidence for the sentiments of the period. Second, he does not develop his explanations. Though he remarks about the absence of (...) modern sentiment in traditional families, he does not articulate what the traditional sentiment was. Third, Childhood displays an ambiguous chronology which places the same historical point at different temporal positions within the narrative. Finally, Ariès consciously writes from a present-minded standpoint which limits his own understanding of the material. (shrink)

First published in 1989, Towards a Theory of Schooling explores and debates the relationship between school and society. It examines the form and function of one of humankind’s most important social institutions, following the cutting edge of pedagogic innovation from mainland Europe through the British Isles to the USA. In the process, the book throws important light upon the origins and evolution of the school based notions of class, curriculum, classroom, recitation and class teaching.

Annotation Baker (curriculum and instruction, U. of Wisconsin) explores the history of philosophical treatments of the idea of "the child" and relates it to the development of concepts of pedagogical theory. Primarily focusing on the works of John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Herbart, and G. Stanley Hall, she describes how the notion of "the child" was related to theories about reason, interiority, and power. Her analysis owes much of its theoretical base to the work of postmodern philosophers such as Foucault (...) and Derrida. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com). (shrink)

This article critically examines moral panic as a political strategy in maintaining the hegemony of the nuclear family, the sanctity of hetereosexual relationships and the heteronormative social order. It focuses on the moral panic associated with children and sexuality, particularly that which is manifested around non-heterosexual subjectivities. The discussion is based on media representations of the moral panic associated with the Play School saga, The Tillman Child Care Centre / Learn to Include booklets and the We’re Here resource. It explores (...) the hegemonic discourses around childhood innocence, sexuality and the construction of the homosexual as ‘folk devil’ and shows how these discourses are mobilised by conservative politicians and moral entrepreneurs to strategically instigate a moral panic at critical points in time. (shrink)

The Early Romantics met resistance from artists and academics alike in part because they defied the conventional wisdom that philosophy and the arts must be kept separate. Indeed, as the literary component of Romanticism has been studied and celebrated in recent years, its philosophical aspect has receded from view. This book, by one of the most respected scholars of the Romantic era, offers an explanation of Romanticism that not only restores but enhances understanding of the movement's origins, development, aims, and (...) accomplishments--and of its continuing relevance. Poetry is in fact the general ideal of the Romantics, Frederick Beiser tells us, but only if poetry is understood not just narrowly as poems but more broadly as things made by humans. Seen in this way, poetry becomes a revolutionary ideal that demanded--and still demands--that we transform not only literature and criticism but all the arts and sciences, that we break down the barriers between art and life, so that the world itself becomes "romanticized." Romanticism, in the view Beiser opens to us, does not conform to the contemporary division of labor in our universities and colleges; it requires a multifaceted approach of just the sort outlined in this book. (shrink)

Briefly traces the life of the eighteenth century German philosopher, discusses his major ideas, and looks at the relevance of his work today.

I argue that Hannah Arendt's analysis of the development of modern society illuminates one aspect of prevailing educational discourse. We can understand the ‘learning society’ as both an effect and an instrument of the logic of ‘bare biological life’ or zoé that Arendt claims is the ultimate point of reference for modern society. In such a society we seem to live permanently under the threat of social exclusion, being permanently put in the position of learners or problem-solvers, without the right (...) of appeal. To imagine the possibility of such an appeal requires us to recover our sense of the experience of childhood. (shrink)

This article critically examines moral panic as a political strategy in maintaining the hegemony of the nuclear family, the sanctity of hetereosexual relationships and the heteronormative social order. It focuses on the moral panic associated with children and sexuality, particularly that which is manifested around non-heterosexual subjectivities. The discussion is based on media representations of the moral panic associated with the Play School saga, The Tillman Child Care Centre / Learn to Include booklets and the We’re Here resource. It explores (...) the hegemonic discourses around childhood innocence, sexuality and the construction of the homosexual as ‘folk devil’ and shows how these discourses are mobilised by conservative politicians and moral entrepreneurs to strategically instigate a moral panic at critical points in time. (shrink)